Rebirth: Once Again With You

"No, that can't be…." Li Caiyi's words trailed off as her eyes shook wildly in front of what looked like her bottle of medicine.

"Madam, you seem to recognize this bottle?" The police officer in charge of interrogating her sneered, "Of course you do since your fingerprints were found all over this thing. We found this lying around near the crime scene. You must have tried to get rid of it after successfully mixing the poison into the wine."

That medicine bottle was Li Chunhua's. Her sister always brought her medicine everywhere, and that one was one of them.

"You could try to come up with an excuse with all you want, but we found the residue of the same poison found in the wine within this bottle. As her sister, it wouldn't be weird if you helped the victim prepare her medicine, and even if you had her things with you, no one would suspect anything. That's when you swapped the content, weren't you?

"That's preposterous! I never did such a thing!" Li Caiyi fiercely denied it.

"The only fingerprints found here are the victim and yours. Do you want to say that the victim poisoned herself?"

"I…That is…" Li Caiyi couldn't find a word to use. Her mind went blank with this sudden turn of events. How could there be poison in Li Chunhua's medicine bottle?

The police officer was a fat man with dark skin and a beard. He looked impatient as he let out a sigh. "The evidence is here, so how about you just come out and admit it? I'm busy and have a lot more important things to do. So you want to say that this bottle came out of your bag on its own?"

"Of course not! This is clearly a setup. Someone clearly wanted to frame me!" Li Caiyi tried to explain, but the officer raised his hand as if he couldn't bear to hear her anymore.

"Madam, do you take us as a fool? Of course, we also wouldn't immediately jump to a conclusion just from that. So we did some more investigation. And that's when we came across some interesting testimonies. Would you like to hear it?"

The way he smiled made her feel unsettled. Li Caiyi probably could already feel it by then. A terrible premonition.

"Based on your husband's account, he was with the victim on the balcony of the west wing that night just before the time of the incident. Now that's a fascinating account, wasn't it? It's really.... mind-inducing. It gave people ideas."

Li Caiyi could feel all the energy left in her body. So they already knew about that too.

"So here's the theory. You had already planned to poison your sister that day, so you swapped the content in advance. Being her sister, no one would suspect you even if you rummaged through her things. But then, something unexpected happened.

By coincidence, you witnessed your husband meet up with another woman sneakily behind your back. Blinded by your jealousy, you couldn't wait until the victim drank her medicine and decided to take action yourself. You grabbed the poison you had prepared from the victim's belongings and called her out to the empty room in the west wing, and that's when the crime happened.

However, you didn't expect your husband and sister-in-law to suddenly barge into the room. And that becomes your downfall."

"No, that's not true! Please don't make up a baseless theory on your own just because my fingerprints were found on the bottle!" Li Caiyi rebuked.

The officer was unfazed and smirked playfully at her instead. "Oh, you have terribly underestimated us. We do have another base for our conjecture."

"You…did?" Li Caiyi's voice faltered.

"Based on your testimony, you went into the crime scene of your own volition after getting a glass of wine from a waiter. Isn't that right?"

Li Caiyi had a bad feeling about this, but it was too late to take back her words. "That's right."

"You said that you felt suffocated and went to get fresh air. However, the waiter's testimony contradicted your statement. He said he saw you running out of the west wing with a dark expression. Now that's the opposite of the crime scene, which is located in the east wing."

An alarm sound reverberated in her head, signaling danger. She broke out in a cold sweat, as she didn't expect that waiter to see her that night.

"Madam, you said you went to the empty resting room in the east wing straight from the main hall. Why did you lie? Isn't that because you want to hide the fact that you have been in the west wing that night? To hide your husband's affair?"

"Watch your mouth! I won't let you slander my husband like that!" Li Caiyi snarled fiercely, but her mind was ultimately in chaos.

Whoever tried to set her up clearly had known about this beforehand. Everything she said to prove her innocence was used against her instead. The more she said something, the deeper she sunk.

Li Caiyi could almost feel a sinister shadow lurking around her, ready to swallow her when it saw a chance.

"Then, what were you doing in the west wing at the time? Don't tell me you were lost because that reason is invalid."

"That's…" Li Caiyi looked down. She vaguely knew that there was no getting out of this situation. These people surely still have something more up their sleeve and hungrily waited for her to lie again so they could be on the righteous side when they unravel her lies.

"I…was in the west wing that night."

In the end, she chose to admit it before everything became messier.

The officer smiled victoriously. "Thank you. Finally, we can get somewhere. You have committed such a terrible lie, and that's really not good for everyone."

"Officer, I just didn't want the matter about my husband to leak everywhere. Please take this into consideration too."

"I understand. You were just trying to cover for your husband and protect his name, right? That's quite sad after what he did to you, actually."

Li Caiyi didn't like how he talked like he knew everything, but she had to hold it in for now.

"I never touched any poison nor called my sister to that room. After witnessing that scene, I was in a bad mood, so I went to the east wing to calm my mind. Then Xiaohua came to my room and asked if she could have my drink, so I gave it to her. That's all that happened. I was also shocked when blood suddenly dripped from her mouth."

Li Caiyi felt nausea hit her again when she recalled that scene. She quickly covered her mouth with her hand. "Officer, your theory is very interesting, but you still don't have enough evidence to pin me as the culprit. I think I have said enough about this."

"Thank you for your cooperation. Usually, a suspect must stay in the detention center until proven innocent. Still, we have special permission for you to be monitored at home. You should thank the Meng family for this."

He spoke as if Li Caiyi wasn't a part of the Meng family. The officer was rude, but she wasn't in the mood to correct his behavior. She quickly rose from her seat and walked out of the room.

The situation didn't turn up well for her. Li Caiyi thought she should speak to her father-in-law about this.